Chontales!

I’m going to be short because I’m in a cyber café, the only place with some sort of connection, and it’s not too reliable. Also, I can’t post pictures today! I’ll see if I can get around that tomorrow somehow.

Today we travelled to Chontales on a public bus. Our driver Alvaro was right behind us in his car, but since Sujeylin, Juan Carlos and little Karla went on the bus, so did I. To film them, obviously. We left at 11.30am and arrived at 5pm. Around 3pm we broke down, in the middle of nowhere. A few guys jumped off the bus and disappeared below it with a bunch of tools and a previously acquired spare part. An hour later, we were up and running again.

Villa Sandino, the town in the region of Chontales where Sujeylin is from, is small and quite quaint. Unlike Managua, it’s actually very clean. And quiet. I was really wondering what her family home would be like, and of course, it is the poorest one – with a soil floor and chicken running around. It’s the last house at the end of a short dirt road, and one of the few ones not painted. What’s more, her mother isn’t there, and the older kids take care of the younger ones. I don’t know how old “older” is, but I’ll find out tomorrow. There seem to be some 6-8 people living in the house, although I am not sure who belonged there and who didn’t.

Sujeylin’s reunion with her first daughter Nasli (whom she hadn’t seen in a year) was quite cold, as the latter doesn’t really recognize the former. I plan on interviewing her (Sujeylin) tomorrow for the voice over and am really curious what she has to say of this reunion. They’re trying to get word to her mother that she’s home as well, which would be good for the film as a meeting between the two can only be interesting. Her mother is at some other place, they call the “Finca”, an hour away. “An hour walking, or by car?” I ask. “No, by horse,” they say. Am not sure whether she works there or what. Another thing to find out tomorrow.

Juan Carlos was there for an hour and already looked bored. I was surprised he wanted to come in the first place. Let’s see how all this plays.

I’ll do my best to post some images soon. I’ll leave it at this as I’ve already lost a few emails because of the dodgy connection and I’d hate to lose this message as well. Let’s give it a try. Am now hitting the “publish” button….